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Summary
This report examines food-related violence in Ituri and North Kivu provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 1 July 2023 and 31 July 2024, highlighting its crippling impact on people’s food security.1 Food-related violence refers to conflict-related activities carried out by armed actors that affect food production, distribution, storage, and transportation, and the energy required to produce food. In North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the period studied, food-related violence included the looting of livestock and crops, and the killings, abductions, and physical assaults of farmers, pastoralists, and fishers. Other factors undermining food security included blockades and access restrictions imposed by armed groups on transportation routes and agricultural and pastoral land, and attacks on markets or market access routes.
The report highlights how systemic violence against farmers, pastoralists, fishers and merchants in eastern DRC has driven millions of people into a state of chronic food insecurity. The persistent use of roadblocks and the looting of food by armed groups suggest that violence targeting food security is a deliberate tactic combining economic and strategic motives. The analysis is based on Insecurity Insight’s Food Insecurity and Violent Conflict (FIVC) dataset, an event-based dataset compiled by Insecurity Insight from open sources and partner contributions, and available for download on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), as well as on the disaggregated data and analysis of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project. It is also supported by desk research and key informant interviews.